Considering composition when you have no time

Monday 2 September 2024, 20:20 by Nando Harmsen | 3,067 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Every photo needs a good composition. But how do you deal with composition when you have no chance to think about it? The solution is actually very simple. You do it in post-processing.

Without a good composition, a photo will never be successful. You do this while taking the photo. You take the time to optimise the arrangement of image elements within the frame. You look at distracting elements, lines, and the positioning of the subject.

Portrait photography and landscape photography often give you more than enough time to choose a good composition.
If you have enough time, composing is a matter of looking and choosing. Landscape photography and portrait photography are examples where that time is available. Make sure you use that time.

However, there are also subjects where that time is not available. These are types of photography where speed is important. Either you have to react quickly, or the subject is moving quickly. It then becomes difficult to think about composition in the heat of the moment as well.

Moments during a wedding reportage. Reacting quickly is important then, so you do not always have time for the optimal composition.
Quite apart from composition, sharpness is also very important. This means that your autofocus needs to be spot on. Fortunately, modern mirrorless cameras offer many options that DSLRs did not have. That is a great advantage, of course.

Yet sometimes a single focus point is the best choice. In that case, choose the centre, where, especially on DSLR cameras, you will find the focus point with the greatest sensitivity. The consequence is that the subject is always in the centre.

An Arctic tern in flight. Despite this camera having many hundreds of AF points available, following the bird is easier when it is kept in the centre.
When following moving subjects, such as animals and people, it can also be sensible to keep them in the centre. It makes following them much easier, especially with fast and erratic movements.

Do the composition afterwards in post-processing. As with the Arctic tern, it is a matter of making the right crop. Remember that it is sensible to leave enough space around the animal, so there is room for this crop.

The final result of an Arctic tern in flight.
Sometimes there are many objects in the frame that can confuse the autofocus. Selecting a single point can also be the solution then. I often choose the centre point. Especially when the subject can suddenly appear, this makes aiming and focusing easiest.

There he was all of a sudden: the pine marten. If the focus point is in the centre, it is simply a matter of aiming and taking the photo. This is the unedited photo.
In post-processing, light and dark can then be used to direct attention within the image. Cropping the image also gives you the opportunity to create the best possible composition.

The final result of the photo of the pine marten.

There are essentially two important rules to follow when you want to use this technique. The first is, of course, making sure that the subject is perfectly sharp in the frame. You do this by using the focus as effectively as possible. Which settings those are depends on your subject and the circumstances.

The second rule is to frame loosely. This means that you should not zoom in as far as possible, but leave more than enough space around the subject. Only then can you make a good crop so that the composition becomes as good as possible.

However, remember that a genuinely bad composition can never be repaired in post-processing. In that case, the photo has simply failed. Do not rely on AI techniques for this either, because apart from removing a small distracting element, that is no longer photography.

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